The Philippines, through the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), will pursue the development of resilient, inclusive and sustainable communities, post-pandemic as it prepares its portfolio of environmental projects for consideration under the 8th funding replenishment of the Global Environment Facility (GEF-8).
The DENR said the Philippines is allocated over $52 million (roughly P2.83 billion) in funding support, the country’s largest allocation to date.
Of the $52 million, bulk or $45.51 million will be for biodiversity while $5.45 million will be for climate change and the remaining $1.8 million for land degradation,t the GEF website said.
“The healthy planet, healthy people framework, as the heart of the overall global GEF-8 architecture, emphasizes the critical connection between humanity and the environment — thus the importance of urgent environmental threats reduction and protection of our natural resources to improve human well-being (cannot be overemphasized),” Maria Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga, DENR Secretary said, during a multi-stakeholder dialogue last week.
Loyzaga said the Philippines shall work with the GEF in strengthening national commitments and institutionalizing capacities to translate these commitments to meaningful actions to support sustainable development.
The DENR said under GEF-8, member countries are encouraged to move more of their programming through 11 integrated programs including food systems; landscape restoration; clean and healthy ocean; circular solutions to plastic pollution; elimination of hazardous chemicals from supply chains; net-zero, nature-positive accelerator; sustainable cities; greening infrastructure development, and wildlife conservation for development.
Projects under GEF-8 will then be implemented by national government agencies, local government units, development partners, non-government and people’s organizations, scientific institutions and academe and other stakeholders during the four-year cycle covering 2023 to 2026.
The DENR also said GEF-funded projects are expected to realign private sector capital to achieve a wider scale and impact empowering local communities to harness their resources and capacities to protect livelihoods, uplift socio-economic conditions and enhance resilience.
